


O, Warning Voice

by nrem (night_reveals)



Series: All Hope Excluded [1]
Category: Paradise Lost - John Milton, The Bible
Genre: Angels, Angst, Betrayal, Gen, M/M, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-02
Updated: 2012-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-31 23:59:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/night_reveals/pseuds/nrem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel begins to come to terms with what has become of his relationship with Lucifer after the Rebellion, and tries to find a way forward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	O, Warning Voice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abuseofreason](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abuseofreason/gifts).



> Only loosely based on the original _Paradise Lost_ text, which I haven't read in its entirety in years. If you are passingly familiar with the story of Lucifer's Rebellion and the Fall of Man, then you'll be perfectly fine. 
> 
> This is all [this post's](http://abuseofreason.livejournal.com/56522.html) fault. Most importantly, it is not mine. Many hugs to nellz and lisa for squeeing with me, and abuseofreason for the awesome fandom pimping and platform. Dedicated to her for being awesome and creating a fandom despite the perils of capitalism.
> 
> [no beta]

It is hundreds of years after the Rebellion before Gabriel sets eyes on Lucifer again. He is shocked at how little Lucifer has changed, his golden wings still wide and strong, his brow still aquiline -- quite unlike the creature with horns and a red, firey tail that the lower malakhim whisper about as they take God's messages to and fro. Across the blue sky Lucifer floats in the air like a figment of Gabriel's imagination come haunting, still so bright that Gabriel can barely force himself to look. As Lucifer approaches, wings held sharp and tight to his body for speed, Gabriel wonders if perhaps the weakness inside of himself has blinded him to Lucifer's new form. For when he watches, he see no Satan: only his once-brother, Lucifer, who denied and left him, who held his pride closer than he held God -- closer than he held Gabriel.

Even now Gabriel's knees tingle with the sense-memory of dropping to the sweet grass to bow before Adam, God's flawed but beautiful creation. Even now Gabriel's heart hurts with the memory of waiting for Lucifer to join him in supplication -- and Lucifer abandoning them all, angry at and defiant of their Father. These memories swell in Gabriel, buoying his anger like hot air buoys his wings.

Forgiveness is holy, but Gabriel does not feel forgiving.

"Brother," says Lucifer, raising a palm in greeting.

The word hits Gabriel like a sword through the chest, coring his heart from his body and filling it with a blaze of emotion at this bastardization of their former regard.

"Who are you addressing?" he asks in anger, looking around as if searching for another angel. He lifts his head to the high, wispy stream of a cloud above them and then lowers it to the wall of grey thunder and crackling lightening below. There is no one but them.

"You, Gabriel. Or is this your way of repudiating me?" Lucifer has flown close, now, a wingspan away from Gabriel. His golden wings seem larger than Gabriel remembers, though surely that is simply a defect of memory.

"No, no, for _that_ right belongs only to one," says Gabriel, mocking. "Perhaps I should bow before your highness, as you fly so far away that I cannot hope to catch even a glimpse of you." At once Gabriel is happy he has shed so many tears before this moment, for now his soul is purged of them, withered down to something tiny and mean.

"I would have no one show me his neck in coerced subservience," says Lucifer.

"Yet you took melakhim with you."

"They came of their own accord, in service and not subservience." Lucifer's voice is maddeningly cool, his words so believable. "I would force no brother of mine to fly a course not his own."

"You speak as if we choose."

"Oh, Gabriel," says Lucifer, a sudden, angry pity evident in his eyes. "It _is_ a choice."

"Choice? No. Our Father crafted our lives and our paths long ago. Yours yet awaits you, if only you would deign to walk it once more."

Lucifer's lips curls in soft disdain, and it is somehow worse than a harsh rebuke. "I finally have discovered my true wings, and you wish for me to cut them off to return to crawling upon the ground as a servant?"

Burned, Gabriel recoils. What must Lucifer think of Gabriel, then, with whom he has always brushed wingtips? "I did not know you looked upon our roles with such scorn. Nor that you esteemed my company so little."

Silence reigns for a moment, and Gabriel imagines himself correct, wondering how long he has been so foolish.

Then Lucifer says, "There is no company I wish for more than yours. There is no shoulder I want brushing mine, nor any voice I strain to hear, nor any soul I long to touch, more than yours -- "

"Michael said that your words would still be sweet as honey. Do not waste your breath. I do not need your false sincerity."

For the first time Gabriel sees discontent upon Lucifer's face, and Lucifer darts in the air to Gabriel's side, putting a harsh hand at the join of Gabriel's shoulder and wing. "Do not brush me aside."

"Ah," says Gabriel, shrugging off Lucifer's hand. "I thought you would be happy I am following in your wingbeats."

"I want no followers." Lucifer fists the hand that had been on Gabriel's back and lets his wings stretch in the sky, huge and imposing, blotting out the sunlight. Gabriel has always felt protected by his brother, happy to be in the shade of Lucifer's wide wings, and it galls him to realize that those feelings are not so easily changed. "I would have you at my side."

"But you were the one to leave, to dismiss my presence as unnecessary."

"I left with my hand extended to you, yet you demanded that I love God more than our freedom.”

"You flew free in the sky same as I," says Gabriel, frustration rising, his wings beginning to beat faster in unrest. "Even now you are free, despite your betrayal."

"Free?" Lucifer laughs, but there is no humour in his voice. "My soul is more free than any in all of Creation, it's true. But I travel freely no longer. You think I do not know that Michael is the one that has finally allowed me entrance to this realm? That he put you here to speak with me, to make me see 'reason'?"

Gabriel's eyes widen in shock -- for sure enough it was Michael who requested he go to this corner of heaven to sing praises this morning .

Lucifer sees the reaction and scoffs. "Oh, Gabriel. Do you tire yet of being their pawn?"

"I am no pawn," spits out Gabriel.

"No," agrees Lucifer, acceptance shining through his face. "That you are not. And now you can prove it: come with me."

"I will not join your rebellion," returns Gabriel, rearing back in the sky. "I cannot. But if -- if you return with me, our Father will forgive you. I have been praying for you, Lucifer, when the sun rises, when the sun sets, and all the times in between. And were you to face reprisal and shame I would still walk by your side until Creation ends, my wings your shield and my shoulder yours to lean on. As it once was."

Lucifer does not reply, his lips twisted in a mien that Gabriel has never before seen.

"Oh, Michael, you bastard,"Lucifer says at last, running a hand through his hair, staring unseeing at Gabriel.

"Lucifer?" asks Gabriel, coming closer, hope rising in his chest.

Lucifer's gaze snaps back to Gabriel, going from Gabriel's sandals to his slight armour to his shoulders and wings, his face, then Gabriel's soul, which he has never had cause to hide from Lucifer.

"Truly," says Lucifer, voice hoarse and eyes flicking about Gabriel. "Michael is better at temptation than I could ever hope to be."

The insinuation in Lucifer’s words come over Gabriel like a wave that he cannot fight; he can only stand strong and hope to weather it. 

"What you feel is not temptation." Gabriel lets a wind tug him closer, sensing a loosening of Lucifer's resolve. "It is our Father's call."

"Our Father cast me out," reminds Lucifer, almost snarling, and Gabriel realises at once that he has misstepped. It is too late. "And Michael has branded me a traitor, calling me ‘Satan’ and leading the seraphim against me. Even on my chair of fire and brimstone I hear the echoes of the songs that they lift to God's ears. Do you deny it?"

"I do not," accedes Gabriel. "But whatever transgressions Michael has perpetrated against you have been done under the yoke of sadness, and with a heart heavy at the loss of his brother. As my heart is."

"But I am not lost!" says Lucifer loudly, teeth flashing. After a breath, his words return to their slow and measured pace, undeniable. "I am here, in front of you, your brother still."

For as long as Gabriel can remember, his brothers have surrounded him in all aspects, at his back, his front, and his sides, watching his weak spots both below and above. They guard his soul and his heart, and he does the same for them, always praising their Father as they carry out their duties to each other and to God's creations. On his knees before Adam, unsure and alone, Gabriel felt the bite of his first betrayal -- a betrayal that no brother would commit, surely.

"Yet what would this Satan, he who left us, know of brotherhood?" asks Gabriel at last, voice wavering along with his wings, pain in every word.

"That is not my name, and you, of all -- ," starts Lucifer, his façade of coolness crumbling at last underneath the hammer that only Gabriel has ever been able to wield. "Call me it no longer."

For hundreds of years, Gabriel has nurtured a distant hope of reconciliation with his thoughts and constant prayers, his vigilance and longing. To see Lucifer here, dismissing their Father's forgiveness -- indeed, not even realizing that it is necessary -- makes Gabriel's insides twist with disbelief.

"Gabriel," repeats Lucifer, face open. Then, soft, "Brother, please."

"We are -- we are not brothers, you and I." When Lucifer reels back as if struck, for the first time Gabriel understands the impulse of cruelty, and begins to hate not only himself for such meanness of spirit, but Lucifer for planting it inside him. "Call me it no longer."

In this shocked moment Gabriel floats, uncomprehending of what he has just wrought -- or perhaps what he has severed, for he feels adrift, the fact of brotherhood suddenly denied. In a flap of wings Lucifer disappears, and though Gabriel has always been the swifter and stronger of the two of them, he finds himself tethered to his spot of sky and unable to follow, dismay making his limbs heavy.

The storm that had been gathering beneath slowly rises, a thundering monstrosity creeping upwards to devour Gabriel, its hail nipping at his skin and its noise splitting his ears. Alone and mourning, Gabriel stays where he is, watching the threatening banks of cloud roll forward and swaying under the lashing rain that attempts to drown him. When he looks up he sees not his Father's sun but grey layered upon grey, until Heaven is turned black and cold as night.


End file.
